The pope and a pub crawl in Venice

We had until 5:30 free today, so decided to take the vaporetto to Murano and Burano. From our closest stop, Zattere, it was quite a trip. The vaporetto went almost all the way around the outside of Venice before veering out into the lagoon toward the islands. 

We got off at Burano first. It's known for lacemaking, so there are many shops selling items made with lace. We weren't really interested in buying lace items, but I remembered how quaint and charming the houses and shops were that lined the canals. 

So pretty, right?  We walked around a bit to find the vaporetto stop to take us to Murano, known for its glass-blowing factories.

The buildings there aren't as charming as the ones on Burano, but B.J. was looking for some souvenirs to take home, so we were on a mission.

Clock tower and bridge on Murano

He found a great place for us to have lunch on Murano. We enjoyed pasta with fresh seafood at Trattoria Valmarana, had tiramisu for dessert and an espresso to end the nice meal.

As luck would have it, we sat next to 2 architects - husband and wife, from Minnesota. They were in town for the Biennale, and she had submitted some entries. They were staying on Murano because they couldn't find a place in Venice, unless they wanted to pay palazzo prices. It was very exciting for them to be part of this worldwide event.

We didn't achieve our goal of finding souvenirs, but we needed to get back to Venice for the pub crawl I arranged with Alessandro Schezzini. He's listed in Rick Steves' guidebook for Venice, and we went on his pub crawl 7 years ago and really enjoyed it. Husband Rick and I tried some years before that to do a pub crawl on our own. We found it really hard to get into the crowded pubs. It was so much nicer hiring a local who can elbow his way up to the bar and get a nice selection of wine and cichetti for us.

Our little group, minus me, at one of the fun bars we visited.

We had a nice group of just 5 guests, plus Alessandro. There were 2 sisters from Oregon and a gal from Washington, D.C., in addition to me and B.J. The gal from D.C. worked for the Catholic church somehow. Suddenly, in the middle of our tour, her phone started blowing up with messages. White smoke had appeared at the Sistine Chapel! A new pope had been elected! All of the church bells in Venice started ringing! Alessandro said it would take a while before they would announce the new pope, but we were still with the group when it happened. An American! From Chicago! So exciting.

OK, so about the bread they serve at almost every restaurant here - Alessandro explained that they don't normally add salt to the dough. The bread has no flavor and seems stale most of the time. He said usually there will be olive oil and salt and pepper at the table in a restaurant. Sometimes you get a little bread plate, but not always, so just use your dinner plate. Dip the bread in some olive oil that you've salted, and suddenly it tastes great. He also said it seems funny that people eat so much bread before the meal. You're full before you even get your order! Eat the bread with the meal, he said! That was our tip for the day.

Here's another picture of our group including me, but not one of the Oregon sisters.

All-in-all we went to 3 different pubs during this tour. We didn't need dinner after the wine and cichetti we'd had. It had been a fun experience with the entertaining Alessandro.